Green apple / acetone taste

[stansoid]

Hey everyone,

I made two 1 gallon batches for beer from grain. A smores beer and a chocolate maple porter.

They were in the fermenter for 3 and 4 weeks respectively. I shook each to airate pre pitch, then pitched with a half pack of dry yeast (notty and s04 I believe).

I bottled them a week ago using a bottling bucket.

I tried them tonight. They both taste like acetone. Green appley as hell. The smores one is almost undrinkable its so acetoney.

Is there something in my process I need to look out for to prevent this? Or do I just need to wait out the bottle conditioning?

 

[beergolf]

Fermentation temp? Recipe? Yeast?

 

[stansoid]

Both recipes were from the Brooklyn brew shop book. All grain recipes.

Ferm temps are controlled in the mid 60s in a chest freezer.

Yeast was notty (in the chocolate maple porter) and s04 (in the smores beer)

Prior to these two I did a chestnut beer from the same book that turned out pretty good.

 

[mainiac]

1 week isn't a very long bottle-conditioning period . . . let them age a week (preferably two) longer and then try them. I have found that it usually takes at least 3 weeks of bottle conditioning before most beers really start coming into their own. Often times just a few days can make a difference, but longer is generally better IMHO.

 

[WayFrae]

The green apple flavor should age out just fine. I'm not sure on the acetone. This is from "How to Brew:"

Acetaldehyde
A flavor of green apples or freshly cut pumpkin; it is an intermediate compound in the formation of alcohol. Some yeast strains produce more than others, but generally it's presence indicates that the beer is too young and needs more time to condition.

Solvent-like
This group of flavors is very similar to the alcohol and ester flavors, but are harsher to the tongue. These flavors often result from a combination of high fermentation temperatures and oxidation. They can also be leached from cheap plastic brewing equipment or if PVC tubing is used as a lautering manifold material. The solvents in some plastics like PVC can be leached by high temperatures.

 

[stansoid]

Sorry to resurrect this old post, but hopefully it can help someone else.

I aged the last of these bottles until today. The acetone taste is still there 100%. possibly worse.

I think I figured it out (and have corrected it for many more batches since). I did not have anything resembling a good seal on my auto siphon. I believe these two beers were oxidized in a big way as air rolled in during the transfer.. I had to keep pumping the auto siphon to keep it going on those batches.

Solved that and since then this issue is gone.

Wayfrae - Palmer had it right.. it was oxidization. Good instinct.

 

[ElJefeBrews]

I don't know of anything other than fusel alcohols that would cause an acetone-like flavor. These will not age out.

Oxidation usually causes a dull, wet paper-like flavor that you tend to notice most on the end.

And the acetaldehyde green apple flavor will age out.

 

[ElJefeBrews]

I think I figured it out (and have corrected it for many more batches since). I did not have anything resembling a good seal on my auto siphon. I believe these two beers were oxidized in a big way as air rolled in during the transfer.. I had to keep pumping the auto siphon to keep it going on those batches.

This will definitely oxidize your beer but I just don't see it being the cause of the acetone flavor

 

[snow16]

Agreed. I'm glad that you solved your problem, but pumping the auto-siphon was most likely not the cause of your 'acetone' flavor.

As a new brewer years ago, I did horrible things to oxidize my beer. I had some funky flavors in some of my beers for sure, but acetone was never one of them.